6
The Cost of Excess ED and Hospital
Admissions
• CMS: hospital care represented about 30% of the $2.7 trillion in
total expenditures for 2011—the largest share of health care
spending. (1)
• IOM: “unnecessary services” are largest contributor to waste in
US health care, accounting for ~$210 billion of the $750 billion in
excess spending each year (2)
• Non-medical factors including social, behavioral and
environmental determinants of health consistently play a
substantially larger role in hospital use than medical factors (3)
(1) National health expenditures 2011 highlights . Baltimore (MD) : CMS ;2013
(2) Institute of Medicine, Committee on the Learning Health Care System in America In: Smith M, Saunders R, Stuckhardt L, McGinnis JM, eds. Best
Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America. Washington, DC: National Academies Press (US), 2013.
(3) Chiu et al., 2009; Lee & Paxman, 1997